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X. Scène galante dans le parc

Entered August 2021

Blank

 

Whereabouts unknown

Oil on canvas

42 x 55 cm

 

PROVENANCE

Paris, sale, Hôtel Drouot (Millon), April 10, 2019, lot 57: “Dans le goût de WATTEAU . . . Scène galante dans le parc / Toile / 42 x 55 cm / Restaurations anciennes / 800/1200€.”


 

REMARKS

fig 10

Unidentified artist, Scène galante dans le parc (detail).

fig 11

Watteau, L’Enchanteur (detail), oil on panel, Troyes, Musée des beaux-arts.

fig 12

After Watteau, Le Bal champêtre (detail), oil on canvas. Paris, formerly Sedelmeyer collection.

 

This undistinguished picture is a pastiche of elements culled from Watteau’s works. The principal source is Watteau’s L’Enchanteur. It provided the figures of the guitarist and the seated woman. But the figure of the woman dancing was derived from one of several possible sources such as his two versions of Le Bal Champêtre and La Musette.

The overall composition resembles L’Enchanteur but whereas Watteau left a judicious space between the guitarist and the seated women, the pasticheur left too little space between the guitarist and the dancer; she is unfortunately too close to him.

Abreuvoir Engraving

Unidentified artist, Scène galante dans le parc (detail).

 

The black servant at the left is a generalized restatement of such exotic servants in Watteau’s paintings such as La Conversation (Toledo), La Coquette (St. Petersburg), and Les Charmes de la vie (London).